Mass flow meters for flowing media that work on the Coriolis Principle are known in various embodiments (see, for example, the German Disclosure Documents 26 29 833, 28 22 087, 28 33 037, 29 38 498, 30 07 361, 33 29 544, 34 43 234, 35 03 841, 35 05 166, 35 26 297, 37 07 777, 39 16 285 and 40 16 907, the European Disclosure Documents 0 083 144, 0 109 218, 0 119 638, 0 196 150, 0 210 308, 0 212 782, 0 235 274, 0 239 679, 0 243 468, 0 244 692, 0 271 605, 0 275 367 and 0 282 552, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,491,009, 4,628,744 and 4,666,421), and are increasingly being used in practice.
In mass flow meters for flowing media that work on the Coriolis Principle, a basic differentiation is made between those whose Coriolis pipeline is designed basically straight, and those whose Coriolis pipeline is designed to be shaped like a loop. A differentiation is also made for the mass flow meter in question between those that have only one Coriolis pipeline, on the one hand, and those that have two Coriolis pipelines, on the other. Those that have two Coriolis pipelines can have them in series or parallel to one another. All forms of embodiment have advantages and disadvantages.
Embodiments of mass flow meters in which the Coriolis pipeline(s) is/(are) designed to be straight are simple with respect to mechanical design, and consequently can be produced at low cost. Their inner surfaces are easy to work on--for example, to polish; they also have low pressure-loss.
A disadvantage of mass flow meters that work on the Coriolis Principle and whose Coriolis pipeline(s) is/(are) designed to be straight, is that both thermally caused expansion and thermally caused stress, plus outside forces and torques, can lead to measuring errors and to mechanical damage--namely, stress cracks.
An objective of the invention is, therefore, to design and develop the mass flow meter described at the beginning, in which the Coriolis pipeline or pipelines is/are designed to be basically straight, so that temperature fluctuations and outside forces and torques do not lead to measuring errors or mechanical damage, or do so to a lesser extent.
The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.